Re: The Path of GNUstep (Was: Re: Gnustep + mac + windows? Possible?)

From:

Jeff Teunissen

Subject:

Re: The Path of GNUstep (Was: Re: Gnustep + mac + windows? Possible?)

Date:

Tue, 24 Sep 2002 02:53:33 -0400

Jason Clouse wrote:
[Larry Coleman wrote:]
> > As a relatively new GNUstep programmer, I have $.02 to add on this.
> > The projects you mention are already very mature; it's easier for
> > someone to see how they can make a significant contribution to GNUstep
> > than to Gnome or KDE, which is one of the reasons I'm here instead of
> > on a Gnome or KDE mailing list. The other reason is that c++ is very
> > (some might say needlessly) complex, while Objective C is simple but
> > just as powerful.
> >
> > Also, people are constantly complaining about how usability of Linux
> > apps, and I think that GNUstep will address this issue better than
> > Gnome or KDE once it matures. OS X is pretty because of Apple's
> > extensions, but IMO it's more usable even than Windows because of its
> > *step foundation.>>
>
> I agree with all of that. But the project could probably do with a
> higher profile and a more sexy image. When Slashdot runs it's (rare)
> story about GNUstep, it gets a small number of replies, most of which
> are either "Is that thing even still alive?" or "What's the point of
> this project?". I think that emphasizing the project in the Cocoa
> community is probably the best way to get a *large* number of interested
> developers. And that probably means at least trying to make porting
> easy and appealing.
I think you can't find the forest because of all of the trees.
What does "What's the point of this project?" mean to you? To me, it means
that there is no _visible_ point to the project. If all we do is more
clones of the same things that are available everywhere else, what IS the
point?
You can't make porting appealing without a BIG benefit, and frankly, "more
users" isn't a big benefit. Mac developers have no reason to port to
GNUstep even if it's totally, completely, compatible -- which, as has
already been established, can't happen. Mac OS X compatibility is a fool's
errand. Then what's the point? Why do it? Why even try to do it?
Mac OS developers are not OpenStep developers, and they don't want to be.
They don't "get" why it's a good thing. Just make it good, and people will
notice on their own.
World Domination doesn't have to happen Right Now, and that's a good
thing. If it's going to happen, it will happen despite those who cry "we
need more developers!", not because of them.
--
| Jeff Teunissen -=- Pres., Dusk To Dawn Computing -=- deek @ d2dc.net
| GPG: 1024D/9840105A 7102 808A 7733 C2F3 097B 161B 9222 DAB8 9840 105A
| Core developer, The QuakeForge Project http://www.quakeforge.net/
| Specializing in Debian GNU/Linux http://www.d2dc.net/~deek/